The Renaissance Society of America

Thursday, April 3, 2008

8:45 - 10:15
Cosimo I De’Medici and the Creation of the Florentine State
Sponsor: The Medici Archive Project
Organizer: Timothy McGee, University of Toronto
Chair: Antonio Ricci, York University

Alessio Assonitis, The Medici Archive Project
Cosimo I and Rome: 1537–42
In the first five years of his rule, Cosimo I was especially attentive to news coming from
Rome. His agents and ambassadors reported with accuracy on the political, diplomatic,
social, cultural and even frivolous events occurring in the eternal city. These accounts
reveal the Duke’s priorities and concerns at a time when Florence was recovering from a
severe economic depression and when Cosimo himself began enforcing a repressive
regime in his state. With archival material mostly drawn from the Mediceo del
Principato, this paper will examine and reassess Cosimo’s initial relation with Pope Paul
III Farnese; his handling of the Florentine fuoriusciti residing in Rome; his interest in
the city’s artistic developments and antiquarian discoveries; and how “the Myth of
Rome,” comprising both the ancient suburbs and the new flourishing city, was initially
employed by Cosimo to construct the identity of Ducal Florence.

Maurizio Arfaioli, The Medici Archive Project
His Father’s Son: Cosimo I de’ Medici and the Rise of the Florentine Military
Still today, most historians see Cosimo I de’ Medici as an armchair general, a
Machiavellian (and probably cowardly) prince who loved to pose as a soldier but never
saw a battlefield in his lifetime — in other words, an unworthy son of his warlike father
Giovanni, the famous “Giovanni of the Black Bands.” This paper argues that thanks to
his excellent grasp of military matters (if not military prowess) Duke Cosimo not only
proved to be a worthy heir of the real legacy of Giovanni de’ Medici — a legacy of
leadership, and not of heroism — but managed to use it to take control and exploit the
great military potential of Tuscany in a way that the Florentine Republic and his
predecessor Alessandro could never hope to achieve, establishing the Duchy of Florence
as a regional military power.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

10:30 - 12:00
Feminine Authority at the Courts of Early Modern Europe
Sponsor: The Medici Archive Project
Organizer: Timothy McGee, University of Toronto
Chair: Monica Azzolini, The University of Edinburgh

Sheila Carol Barker, The Medici Archive Project
Women’s Authority in Medical Matters at the Courts of Early Modern Italy
New evidence has emerged recently regarding women’s non-professional practice of
medicine in the Renaissance at the courts of Northern Europe. This paper will outline
the situation in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Italy. It will be shown that
women in positions of political and religious authority provided to their friends, family,
and allies (both male and female) all of the following: medical advice, medicinal or
otherwise curative substances, and personal pharmaceutical recipes. Several books on
medicine were dedicated to them; experimental drugs were brought to their attention; a
number of them had their own personal pharmacies; and they played key roles in the
careers of many illustrious university physicians. Once women’s authoritative
intervention in medical matters has been sketched out, this paper will compare it to the
activities of their male counterparts and suggest subtle margins of difference.

Brian Sandberg, Norther Illinois University
Of Mothers and Aunts: Regency Government and Performance in Early Modern France and Tuscany under Maria de’ Medici and Cristina di Lorena Cristina di Lorena and Maria de’ Medici both acted as regents during a period of instability and transition in the early seventeenth century. While recent work on French queens and regents by Fanny Cosandey and Katherine Crawford has expanded our understanding of Maria de’ Medici’s role at the French court, the interesting links between the Medici and Bourbon courts in this period remain largely unexplored. The curious coincidence of simultaneous regencies in both courts allows for a direct comparative examination of regency government organization and gender performances in France and Tuscany at the same historical moment. In this paper, I intend to reinterpret the regencies of Cristina di Lorena and Maria de’ Medici using manuscript correspondence and reports from the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Archives Nationales. I hope to demonstrate the linked approaches to regency government pursued by Maria de’ Medici and Cristina di Lorena.

Lisa Kaborycha , The Medici Archive Project
The Grand Duchess “Stepping Out”: Johanna of Austria’s Artistic Patronage
Johanna von Habsburg — Grand Duchess of Tuscany and sister of Emperor Maximilian II— has been subject of many studies (often romanticized), which deal with the marriage
negotiations and her triumphal entrata into Florence, her preoccupation with producing a
male heir for Francesco de' Medici, and her antagonism at court with the Grand Duke's
mistress, Bianca Cappello. In light of new archival documents, this paper proposes to dispel
commonplaces and historical inaccuracies concerning Johanna and demonstrate how her
personality emerged and asserted itself over the course of her life at the Medici court. The
Grand Duchess's interests in literature, her patronage of the arts, close personal relationships with Cosimo I and the Duke of Urbino, as well as her forceful public image will be explored, revealing hitherto unknown aspects of her character.

Friday, April 04, 2008

2:00–3:30
Siena and the Medici in the Sixteenth Century
Sponsor: The Medici Archive Project
Organizer: Timothy McGee, University of Toronto
Chair: Konrad Eisenbichler, University of Toronto

Miguel Gotor, Universita di Torino
A Sienese Preacher in Italy and Europe: Bernardino Ochino (1487–1564)
Born in Siena in 1487, Bernardino Ochino reached the highest ranks of the Capuchin
Order in the 1530s, shortly after having been involved with its foundation. On July
1542, at the apex of his success (and apparently on his way to being made cardinal), he
fled to Geneva in order to avoid the Inquisition. From this point on, Ochino restlessly
wandered throughout Protestant Europe, stopping in Geneva, Augsburg, Strasbourg,
London, Zurich, Poland, and Moravia, where he died in 1564. This paper will discuss
Ochino’s religious conversion — with particular reference to his Sienese sermons
(1539–40) — and analyze his quest for tolerance and freedom, in regard to both religion
and politics.

Elena Brizio, The Medici Archive Project
Sienese Women in the Florentine Archives, 1545–65
This paper examines the changes in women’s status in Siena after the Fall of the
Republic (1555) and the annexation of Siena to the newly formed dual Duchy (later
grand Duchy) of Florence and Siena. Through an analysis of archival material in the
Florentine archive, this paper covers the relation of Sienese women with the new
Florentine court, women’s behavior in relation to their families’ problems in the new
political and the social arena, the decisions made on their behalf by their parents, the
“construction” and fates of dowries, and the related transfers of wealth inside and outside
their kin group. I will show a reality which really goes beyond the tranquility that
statutes would desire and that, even if organized in structures that appear inflexible, in
reality most women both in the city and in the countryside had a personal autonomy
determined by their wealth, age, and intelligence.

Stefano Dall'aglio, The Medici Archive Project
Political and Religious Dissent in Siena under the Medicean Occupation
The so-called “War of Siena” (1552–55) constituted the watershed between the
Republican Siena and the one occupied by Cosimo I and incorporated into the Duchy
of Florence. In the previous years, Siena had been a hotbed of religious and political
anti-Medicean dissent, but after the war the repression which ensued united religious
and civil authorities and had concrete effects. After a period of relative tolerance, the
definitive surrender of the fuoriusciti in 1559 marked the beginning of a new wave of
political and religious repression. While Cosimo I restored the imperial fortress and
reorganized the administrative government, the Sienese Inquisition placed some people
under arrest with the charge of heterodoxy. From this moment on, any prospect of
political and religious freedom in Siena disappeared, but this could not avoid the
persistence of sporadic cases of dissent against the authorities and the new regime.